Are you interested in raising your profile, building your network, strengthening your leadership skills and implementing new ideas within our community? If so, CANSCAIP has an opportunity for you.

The CANSCAIP nominating committee is currently seeking volunteers for the executive, including both Members and Friends. Terms are for two years, beginning at the end of April 2015.

Interested Members and Friends should contact Past President Karen Krossing at kekrossing@gmail.com. Karen is also available for phone calls, upon request, to discuss options and details.

Don’t have time for a two-year commitment? Please consider becoming a Short-Term Volunteer. Administrative Director Helena Aalto is also looking for people who can volunteer for special projects as well as one-day tasks.

Not in the Greater Toronto Area? CANSCAIP can Skype you in for any meetings. In order to deliver national programming, CANSCAIP’s volunteer pool needs national representation.

Still interested? Here’s a breakdown of CANSCAIP’s volunteer positions:

Short-Term Volunteer: Members or Friends who volunteer through the CANSCAIP office for special projects as well as one-day tasks.

Board Members

President: A Member who helps to implement CANSCAIP’s strategic plans, guides staff in day-to-day operations and presides over meetings.

Vice-President: A Member who assists the President. (Note: The VP is no longer in charge of the annual PYI Conference. The VP is not required to become President.)

Treasurer: A Member who helps to manage the CANSCAIP finances.

Member-at-Large: A Member who assists the Board in making decisions about plans and policies.

Friend-at-Large: A Friend who assists the Board in making decisions about plans and policies.

Non-Board Members

Past-President: A Member who mentors the incoming Board members and seeks the executive for the next term.

Co-Recording Secretaries: Members and/or Friends who record meeting minutes.

Co-Program Chairs: Members and/or Friends who plan the programming for Toronto monthly meetings from September to June.

Illustrators’ Representative: A Member and/or Friend who advises the Board on plans to benefit illustrator members.

Performers’ Representative: A Member and/or Friend who advises the Board on plans to benefit performer members.

Co-membership Chairs: Members and/or Friends who greet membership at Toronto monthly meetings and advise the Board on plans to benefit membership.

News Editor: A Member who edits CANSCAIP’s quarterly newsletter.

Listserve Manager: A Member who monitors CANSCAIP’s Member-Only listserve.

Regional Representatives: Members and/or Friends who advise the Board on regional needs and may organize local events.

The story concerns a curious girl who feeds rambunctious animals onher grandmother’s farm.

PROGRAMME

Temperatures may have plummeted outside but members and friends warmed to Ted Staunton as he shared his thoughts about the writing craft. When he’s not writing or speaking, Ted teaches at George Brown College, and also performs in a jug band.

Ted amazed and amused us by playing guitar and singing several songs to illustrate seven points about performing and writing.

1. Performance and writing seem to be in direct opposition to each other. Performance is all about immediate gratification. Writing is about delayed gratification (lots of waiting before the book is finished and finds a publisher). However - the best way to start both is to get to the point. You have two paragraphs or one song to grab the reader or audience.

2. Structure is very important to both. Stories have a structure and flow, so does a musical performance. A beginning has to grab listener or reader. Add complexity. Build to a climactic note. End on a grace note.

3. What you leave out can sometimes be more important than what you put in.

4. Pacing. If you get off to a fast start you can stretch out in the middle.

5. Sometimes in a performance the best stuff is the result of the unexpected. The same has been true for Ted writing novels. His first novels he plotted out which were a useful safety net. Writing the last few novels, he knew the start and finish but wasn’t quite sure how to get there. He likes being open to new ideas coming into the story.

6. You’re not in it alone. Even though a musician is alone on the stage and the writer faces the blank screen alone, there are people who can give feedback on our work-in-progress and in a concert you’re always with an audience.

7. Every audience wants you to succeed. Every reader wants to love your book.

CANSCAIP President, Bill Swan, opened the meeting with congratulations to all the members who were winners at the TD Children’s Book Awards Gala last week.

The big winner was Kathy Stinson, who, with illustrator Dušan Petričić, won the TD Children’s Literature Award for their picture book The Man With the Violin.

Karen Bass, a longtime member from Alberta, won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People for her book Graffiti Knight.

Rona Arato, a frequent attendee of our Toronto meetings (though not present at this meeting) won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for her book The Last Train, A Holocaust Story.

Ted Staunton, teacher of George Brown College’s popular Writing for Children courses (many of his students were in the audience) took home the John Spray Mystery Award for Who I’m Not.

Finally, the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy was won by Erin Bow, a favourite speaker at this year’s Packaging Your Imagination conference.

CANSCAIP ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Bylaws

All full members should have already received an email regarding a special meeting to be held on December 10th at 6PM, in Toronto, before our regular meeting. There we will be voting on some necessary changes to our bylaws. New regulations require that all members of an organization must vote. Therefore, a notable change will be that Friend Members will now be able to vote. A Friend of CANSCAIP will also represent Friend Members on the board of directors.

Because we’re holding the meeting under the old bylaws, only members will vote in December, but Friends will be welcome at the meeting.

If you are a full member and have not received an email with a copy of the proposed bylaws, please contact the office.

CANSCAIP at TIBF

CANSCAIP has a beautiful curated art show at INSPIRE, this year’s Toronto International Book Fair, being held this weekend. It features illustrations by Werner Zimmermann, Sue Todd, Holly Main, Brenda Clark, Michael Marchenko, Barbara Reid and many more. Please drop by our booth to say hello.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Peter Carver, editor at Red Deer Press, wrote to invite us all to Jean Little’s book launch for Do Not Open Until Christmas on Saturday, December 13that the Lillian H. Smith Library in Toronto from 2-4. All are welcome.

NEW CREATIONS

Heather Anne Hunter took the podium to announce her self-published book, Ravi’s Revenge, a finalist for the INSPIRE award, given out Sunday at TIBF.

Jeff Pinkney was delighted to show us his very first novel, Soapstone Signs, an illustrated chapter book in the Orca Echoes series that won the Writers Union Children’s Writing Contest (now run by CANSCAIP) in 2007. Jeff studied at Trent with CANSCAIP member, Joanne Findon, who he thanked in the acknowledgements.

Bill Swan was also sporting that new-book glow. He showed off Real Justice: Jailed for Life for Being Black. The book is about Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter. Bill said it was “A story of friendship and triumph in the face of almost insurmountable odds.”

Finally, Nadia Hohn placed an article in Canadian Children’s Book News and will have two books out in January!

Garner suggested that authors could use this service to keep track of large projects like novels, including multiple drafts and versions, contracts, and other documents related to publication and submission history. With multiple servers in and outside of Toronto, it is the only backup necessary.

Interested? If you are already an affiliate, all you have to do is to contact Garner at acesupport@accesscopyright.ca for a username and password.

If you are a published author or illustrator and are not an affiliate of Access Copyright, you should be! Affiliates are eligible to receive the annual Payback payment. What’s that, you ask? Each year, all eligible affiliates receive a share of the Payback payment depending on how much they contributed to the repertoire of works licensed by Access Copyright.

QUESTIONS

Q: We’ve heard that this service can be used to send large documents to our editors. What about tracking changes? Will that be possible?

A: Not yet, but we’re hearing that authors want this. It’s the next big change to the system that we will be working on.

Q: What about privacy?

A: The system is completely private. “Even I don’t even have access to Sylvia’s files,” Garner told us. “No one else has access to your files.” Also, none of their backup servers are outside Canada, so no need to worry about NSA snooping.

Q: When are our cheques coming?

A: With only a slight roll of the eyes, Garner told us that he did not work on the Payback payment side of things. BUT he couldn’t help noticing that there was a lot of envelope stuffing going on at the Access Copyright office. It won’t be long!

On that happy note, we all broke for coffee. Join us on December 10th for our next Toronto meeting.

In our final post featuring 2014 Packaging Your Imagination speakers, we have a cornucopia of three very different book experts: Holly Kent, who will be speaking about social media, Ashley Spires, who will be speaking about graphic novels, and Susin Nielsen, who will be delivering our Claire Mackay memorial lecture entitled “Confessions of a Word Nerd.”

HollyKent is the Community Manager for the National Reading Campaign, a not for profit dedicated to making Canada a reading nation. Holly manages the NRC’s entire web presence, including the blog Readerly, two interactive websites, and several social media accounts. Previously, Holly created the social media strategies for Scholastic Canada and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.

Lena Coakley: The topic of your CANSCAIP presentation is: Social Media for Authors & Illustrators: Reaching Readers Online. Can you give us a little taste of what you'll be talking about? What are some tips or nuggets of wisdom you'll be sharing with PYI attendees?

Holly Kent: Because I'm expecting a wide range of social media abilities, I'll start with a social networking bootcamp. I'm going walk attendees through all the online tools that authors and illustrators have at their disposal, from Facebook to Tumblr to the 49th Shelf. I'll also share some secret (and less than secret) tools to achieve social media goals, like gaining followers, driving traffic to your website, or meeting likeminded individuals. I anticipate a lot of specific questions about social media, so please don't be shy. If I don't know the answer to a question I'll find it - probably by asking my Facebook friends.

BC author, illustrator and cat enthusiast AshleySpires is best known for her junior graphic novel series, Binky The Space Cat. She likes to make picture books too, namely 2014’s TheMostMagnificentThing and Edie’sEnsembles. Her work has won the Silver Birch Express, the Shining Willow and the Hackmatack awards.

Lena: What about you, Ashley? What will you be sharing with PYI attendees?

AshleySpires: I notice that my presentation, TheAccidentalGraphicNovelist, is being billed as a writers workshop. That's quite humourous because I still don't totally consider myself a writer (thus the accidental part of the title.) I was, and will always be, an illustrator first. The world of graphic novels, where the words and the pictures are splitting the story-telling workload, is a perfect place for an excited illustrator/ hesitant writer to find a home. I'm going to talk a lot about that wonderful place where the pictures and the text overlap, because the real story exists in that crossover space.

Lena: How do you stay motivated?

Ashley: My trick to staying motivated may not be the healthiest, but it sure works. Basically, what I've accomplished thus far is never enough. I'm always wanting the next book to be better- whether that means that it sells better or earns more awards or I just plain think I did a better job than the last book. Maybe when I'm not so new to this career I will feel differently, but right now there is just so much to accomplish that I can't help but work, work, work! Which reminds me, I better get back to that painting...

SusinNielsen is the author of the best-selling novels WordNerd, DearGeorge Clooney: PleaseMarryMyMom and the Governor General’s Award-winner, The ReluctantJournalofHenry K. Larsen. Her new novel, We Are All Made of Molecules, will be published in Canada, the US and the UK in Spring 2015.

Lena: Can you give us a little peek into what you’ll be sharing at PYI, Susin?

SusinNielsen: I'll be talking about my journey to becoming a writer, and along the way I -- an eleventh grade math dropout -- will also attempt to prove a mathematical equation.

Words of wisdom: Malcolm Gladwell says it takes ten thousand hours to become an expert at something. I think this is mostly true - except, I'm pretty sure I've done ten thousand hours of writing, and (sorry) it doesn't get easier. That said - I do believe that the more you write, the better you get at your craft - or at least, better at sniffing out what isn't working.

Lena: We’re all eagerly awaiting your next book. Can youtell us about it?

Susin: My new novel is called We Are All Made of Molecules. It comes out in spring 2015, and will be published in Canada, the US and the UK simultaneously - which is a first for me. I have two narrators, one of whom appeared in a smaller role in Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom. It's about a blended family ... and loss, love and acceptance of differences.

Lena: Thanks you three! See you on Saturday!

There is LESS THAN ONE DAY left to sign up for PYI. Registration closes at 11:59 tonight, Thursday the 16th.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

President Bill Swan welcomed everyone to the first trial of having our Toronto meeting outside Toronto and deemed the venture a success with over 30 people attending.

Heather Rath, a long time writing member, made it to a meeting for the first time in 15 years, as well as Diane Matich, a Friend, Caroline Freibauer, a teacher/librarian from Assumption College in Brantford, and many more.

CANSCAIP ANNOUNCEMENTS

PYI: Lorna Poplak the co-director of Packaging Your Imagination listed five reasons to sign up for PackagingYourImagination by the cutoff date Thursday, October 16.

1) The amazing array of workshops.

2) The Industry Panel

3) The Networking opportunities

4) The All day Pitch Perfect on Sunday, October 19 both for authors and illustrators. The author spot is full, there are three spots for illustrators

5) The art exhibition running untill October 17th, Monday to Friday from 10 to 5 at Humber College, Lakeshore campus. “Capturing Imagination: The Art of Storytelling” features illustrations from such stars as Sue Todd (illustrator of the beautiful woodcut above) Brenda Clark, Michael Marchenko, and Barbara Reid. (It will also be on display at Inspire: the Toronto International Book Fair, November 13, 14, & 15th.

Sign up today!

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to CANSCAIP member, LesleyChoyce, (East Laurencetown, N.S.) who is a nominee for the Governor General’s Award for JeremyStone (Red Deer Press) a young adult novel written in free verse about a First Nations teenager finding his spirits.

NEW CREATIONS

CANSCAIP friend since 2010, Nadia Hohn thanked CANSCAIP for its support and encouragement. The story she’s struggled with over the years, Malaika’sCostume, won the Helen Issobel Sissons Canadian Children’s Award and will be published by Groundwood Books in 2016. Nadia also wrote a feature “Who Will Write Our Stories?” article for the Fall 2014 Issue of Canadian Children’s Book News.

LanaButton signed a contract for another Willow picture book with Kids Can Press for 2016, tentatively entitled Willow’sPictureDaySmile .

In April 2014, EllenJaffe worked with students at the Hamilton Hebrew Academy (grades 3-7) on a poetry and art project about the Holocaust, to help them understand and empathize with children of that time. Some of the students' poems and artwork will be published in the Hamilton Spectator's "OUR PULSE" page on Tuesday, Oct. 14. This weekly section features work from students in the public and Catholic school boards and from private schools in the area. Ellen and the teachers and principal at HHA were very impressed with the students' ability to connect with this painful time, and to express their feelings in writing and art.

Liam O’Donnell is an award-winning author, educator and literacy advocate. He has created over 35 graphic novels and books, including Max Finder Mysteries, Graphic Guide Adventures, and Geeked Out Mysteries. The first book in his upcoming series, BattleforMinecraft, will be published in November, and his new series, Tank & Fizz, comes out in Spring 2015. Liam teaches Grade 1 in Toronto, where he uses video games and other alternative sources of literacy to engage reluctant readers.

(Liam and PYI co-coordinator, Lorna Poplak, chat after the meeting.)

The Mystery Behind the Writer

Liam O’Donnell admits to being empowered by a strange inner mantra: “I don’t know.” When he first applied for the position of editor at Owl Magazine some 20 years ago, he was instead offered another opportunity: Could he take over the writing of ‘Mighty Mites' (originally written by Emily Hearns and illustrated by Mark Thurman)? With his media writing background, he seemed a natural. Despite having no clue about whether he could do it or not, he agreed, took the Mites into outer space and gave them superpowers. Many years later, when Owl editors felt 30 years of Mighty Mites had taken them everywhere they could possibly go, they asked if Liam had any other ideas.

Writing the Mystery

While inwardly chanting his mantra, outwardly he said, “Sure.” He asked the editors for the weekend to formulate his thoughts. While he had no idea whether he could write a mystery, he knew he liked Encyclopedia Brown. What if he did something like that in comic-book form? Owl signed him on for three trial episodes of Max Finder which ended up continuing for another 12 years.

As Liam fumbled (his word) through 30 mysteries, he soon understood that each was a puzzle to be layered with truth, red herrings, suspects and alibis. Of course, says he, there is no murdering in middle-grade mysteries. Theft, vandalism, sabotage, talent shows that end in disaster because things go missing-these are the only possible crimes. Still they were fun to create, and he learned that adding elements of mystery to any genre is a great way to get a story going.

Regarding writing series, he’s learned to involve a growing cast of characters in a central location. Tank and Fizz is his new series involving a troll and goblin who live under a mountain. In it, text and comics tell a kind of diesel-punk-noir detective story about a war between technology and wizards using magic and gadgets. The CaseoftheSlimeStampede will be out with Orca in the spring of 2015.

The Mystery of the Market

Fast forward through some 35+ books, (Liam wrote System Shock in 2008 and many Max Finder Mystery novels). A lack of consistent income made him take up teaching grade 1 five years ago. In the classroom he’s known for using alternative text, comic books, graphic novels and even video games to encourage literacy. He says that while in 1999, graphic novels were not condoned as quality reading materials for the schools, today they are actively pursued. Currently, video games enjoy that same mark of disdain.

Just as he uses non-traditional avenues to get kids reading, he’s also pursuing “indie” publishing methods to get his books out there. He hates contracts (and the hit-and-miss route of pursuing them) and feels that the 25% industry standard royalty rate on ebooks is blatantly unfair. He began with Ganked, a story he intended as a 15,000 word Orca Soundings that somehow overflowed the box into a 25,000 word YA. Instead of hunting for someone to publish this stand-alone, he put on a publisher’s hat and hired editors and designers to help format the book. He says he’s never had so much fun in his life. He notes that life became too busy for him to properly market the work, and he intends to pay more attention to that aspect in the future.

When he was approached by a book packager with an offer to write a 20,000-word Minecraft book in three weeks for $2,000, he instantly declined but recognized the potential of such a project. He decided to write and publish the novel on his own. This way he can put out a series before his young readers tire of the video game. Watch for Battle for Minecraft: Descent into Overworld.

Liam loves the mystery of the new choices and opportunities and thinks CANSCAIP can potentially play a huge roll in assisting us all with these ventures. Will his indie books succeed or will traditionally published books triumph and will both happily coincide? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. As he says, this mantra charges him. “Not knowing can either fill you with fear or thrill you with opportunity.” It’s clear that Liam is thrilled.

Our next meeting topic: WAR WRITING--details to follow

Room 224, Northern District Library, 40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto

Parking: There are several Green P's within walking distance.
Transit: Just north of the Eglinton subway stop on the Yonge line.

Interested in starting a CANSCAIP meting in your community? Contact the office about help, seed money, and more.

Erin's first novel, Plain Kate, one of my favourite fantasies, received numerous honours, including the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her second novel, Sorrow's Knot, is nominated for the Monica Hughes award for Science Fiction and Fantasy and made the Kirkus Best Books of 2013 list.

Lena Coakley: Hi Erin! Thanks for stopping by the CANSCAIP blog. The topic of your presentation is: Details: How Little Things Bring Your Writing to Life. Can you give us a little taste of what you'll be talking about? What's one tip you'll be sharing with PYI attendees?

Erin Bow: Details are a paradox: They are both the thing that bog readers down in boredom, and the thing that makes writing feel real and lively and moving. This is a workshop about telling the difference between those two. It’s about where to use details, which ones to use, and what effects to get out of them.

I’ve got one really good concrete tip for you, that I adapted from something I heard from Hugh Cook. It’s called the ladder of specificity. For example you could describe a classroom floor as:

The floor

The linoleum floor

The checkerboard linoleum floor

The old, cracked floor, cheap in the seventies and cheaper now.

My quick advice is to match how high you go on the ladder to the emotional intensity of the scene. People – and our characters -- notice things more in intense situations. Say your character is entering a new classroom for the first time. She’s had to transfer schools because her old boyfriend was killed by a werewolf and she was framed for it. The HORROR. Now everyone is staring at her, including the people she suspects are secret werewolves. She looks down at the floor.

It’s a cracked linoleum floor, right? Brown and maybe it used to be cream but now it’s kind of spoiled-milk yellow and one of the bad-milk squares is cracked off at the corner, and the triangle of untiled floor is black with sticky dirt.

Whereas the day before she was framed, it was just a floor.

What I’m saying is you don’t want an unremitting pile-up of specificity. That’s the kind of thing that makes readers scan ahead and hope for explosions. But you want to build an ebb and flow of specificity that matches the ebb and flow of the story. A bunch of bottom of the ladder things will breeze by the stage business of the story. A couple of third-step-of-the-ladder every couple of pages will keep the world seeming real. Go to the top when you need an emotional punch.

LenaCoakley: Wow. Thanks Erin. Now, I’d like to ask you a completely unrelated question, but, as a novel writer, one that’s close to me personally: How do you stay motivated?

ErinBow: My trouble is not staying motivated, it’s getting started. I go to the office with lots of amazing ideas and I still end up wondering if maybe I should play solitaire for an hour or two. I have the willpower and attention span of a goldfish. So I have some systems.

First, I have an office. I have a place that I go where I don’t (and can’t) do my dayjob. Where I am not (and can’t be) a hands-on parent. Where I can’t do the laundry. I have set hours that I go there, and I go with my figurative writer hat on. Second, I have rituals that key my tiny goldfish hindbrain that it’s time to write: I have a soundtrack and certain kind of tea and other, sillier things. If I thought a literal hat would help I would totally get one. Third, I make I deal with myself that I’ll spend 15 minutes working on something small. Often this is all I need to get going. Finally, and this has been key to me, I give myself a sticker when I get 1000 words.

The stickers mark my good days with a wee ritual, and motivate me to at least TRY on days when writing sucks and I suck. They make a book seem more manageable -- 100 or so is a draft, which isn't an impossibly huge number -- and they help me keep track of what I did when. But mostly , I do stickers because it’s amazing what my tiny goldfish brain will do for a sticker. Honestly, there are days when scrubbing the toilet sounds better than writing, but even on those days, I'll write for stickers.

Today we're continuing our series of interviews with 2014 Packaging Your Imagination conference speakers with Debbie Ridpath Ohi, illustrator of the picture books I'M BORED and NAKED (both written by Michael Ian Black) and of numerous Judy Blume covers. Debbie has the most vibrant internet presence I know, so I am sure her PYI talk, Lightning Rods, Agents & Book Deals: Building Your Personal Brand will be chock full of useful information. Lucky for us, she's agreed to give us a little preview.

Lena: Can you give us a taste of what you'll be talking about at PYI? What's one tip or nugget of wisdom you'll be sharing with attendees?

Debbie: However you feel about the word "brand," everyone has a personal brand. You DO have control over it (yes, even the shy and introverted) and it can have a big effect on how successful you are in achieving your personal and professional goals. Some keys, I've found: Be authentic, find your niche and don't try to do everything. Come to my workshop and I'll explain more, including social media tips for those who aren't quite sure what to do with their social media.

Lena: I’m a great fan of I’M BORED and NAKED.Tell us about your next book.

Debbie: I'm super-excited about my next book because it's also the very first children's book of which I'm author as well as illustrator. WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? is a picture book about a little boy named Spencer whose beloved books are mysteriously vanishing, one at a time. Who is taking them? Spencer needs to solve the mystery before his bookshelves are empty. WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? comes out from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in May 2015.

Lena: I love that premise! If you could offer one piece of advice to an aspiring author/illustrator, what would it be?

Debbie: Don't try to do it on your own. If I could have given my younger self one piece advice, it would have been to start meeting other author/illustrators and attending conventions like Packaging Your Imagination much earlier. While it's possible to find publishing success on your own, the journey can be made easier and much more enjoyable if you can commiserate with, encourage and learn from others.

Lena: Do you have a marketing strategy? Could you tell us what's worked for you and what hasn't?

Debbie: I believe that everyone needs to find a marketing strategy that works for them; there is no ONE right way to do it. My own marketing strategy (if you could call it that) developed because I wanted to avoid asking people to buy my book. So instead of doing that, I do what I can to make people interested in me and my work, so that when my new book DOES come out, they're already aware of it. If they want to buy the book, that's great. But if not (even the most avid bibliophiles have limited book-buying budgets), that's also fine. But in either case, I'm hoping that they might borrow it from the library or read it in the bookstore. And if they like it, maybe they'll let others know about it by word of mouth or social media.

As for what's worked and what hasn't worked for me, I have no hard sales data thatconnects specific marketing strategies to sales. However, I do notice certain patterns with what people respond to via sharing or Likes on social media.

What's worked for me:

Sharing my process, sharing my excitement about my own books as well as other books. I've found that people respond most to when I add something personal. Including something visual (whether it's a book cover or especially a sketch or illustration) also gets more responses.

What hasn't worked for me:

Anything resembling direct marketing.

Lena: I feel like I’ve watched your success happen before my eyes. How have you grown as a writer/illustrator between your debut and your latest book? What advice do you have for debut authors?

Debbie: One thing I've learned: the angst NEVER ENDS, so it's important to enjoy every success, no matter how small. I used to think that getting my first book published was the ultimate goal. As soon as my first book got published, however, I realized that there was a whole new level of angst waiting with each book: What kind of reviews would the book get? Would there be ANY reviews? What would sales be like? How much promotion should I do? How would I juggle promotion and working on my next book? How do I keep from getting into a rut? and so on and so on.

I still angst, of course, but I also try to enjoy the process and the journey.

Another piece of advice: Don't get so caught up in promotion and marketing efforts that you forget to CREATE.

Lena: I SO agree that the angst never ends, but I sometimes find it a bit demoralizing. How do you stay motivated?

Debbie: I make time to play (doodle and write for the fun of it) every day. I keep working on my craft, learning new techniques that I can't wait to try out.

And as I said above, I attend events like Packaging Your Imagination where I can learn from others in the industry. I also surround myself with creative types who inspire me, or follow them online.

Lena: How have you built an audience over time. Any tips?

Debbie: I'll be sharing many more tips in my PYI workshop, but here are just a few:

Before diving into social media, figure out what you want to get out of it first. Too many authors and illustrators join Twitter just because they know their publishers want them to, but then get frustrated because they're not sure how to use it.

Decide who your target audience is, and then post accordingly. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Pick your niche. How can you stand out? What are your strengths?

Don't get obsessed with follower count. Therein lies madness and frustration. Focus on good content and non-spammy interaction.

Give good karma and it will come back to you.

Lena: That’s such perfect advice, Debbie, and if there’s anyone I know in the kidlit world who gives out good karma, it is you. Thanks so much for dropping by the CANSCAIP blog.

Debbie will explain how an effective author or illustrator brand can give you a major edge in finding agents, landing book deals and marketing your work. She’ll also offer practical tips on how to find your own authentic brand as well as how to build it online.

(Please note: this workshop will not be conducted in the tub.)

CANSCAIP's Packaging Your Imagination conference will be held on Saturday, October 18th in Toronto.

INTRODUCING HELENA AALTO

CANSCAIP has a new administrative director, who was welcomed to her first meeting (in her new position) by a roaring crowd.

PYI

Helena pitched our upcoming, Packaging Your Imagination conference taking place Saturday, October 18th. Workshops by Erin Bow, Shelley Tanaka and Lesley Livingston are filling up fast, so if you are interested in those particular sessions, you’d better click this link. Like now.

VOLUNTEER ON SEPTEMBER 21st

Helena also announced that CANSCAIP will have a booth at the Word on the Street festival and we need volunteers to help give out brochures and chat-up CANSCAIP. It’s a great way to get to know your fellow members and friends, so if you’re going to be there anyway, why not help out for a few hours? Call or Email Helena at the office for more information.

OUR OCTOBER MEETING

Jennifer Maruno (glowing from that recent star in Quill and Quire) took the podium to announce that our next meeting in October will be an outreach meeting in Burlington, Ontario. This will help to serve some of our out-of-town members, but we hope that our Toronto people will make the effort to car-pool or Go Train as well. Further information will follow.

Are you farther afield and burning with jealousy about our fabulous meetings? CANSCAIP offers seed money to groups who wish start meetings in their local area. If you are interested, please call or email the office for more information.

PROGRAM: Sheila Barry on Writing and Publishing Books that Matter

(Please note, this is a summery of our meeting and is not meant to represent a word-for-word transcription.)

Jennifer then introduced Sheila Barry. Sheila worked at Kids Can Press before moving to Groundwood Books, where she became publisher in 2013 when founder, Patsy Aldana, retired.

Sheila said that she wanted to begin her talk with an apology. “I would hate for anyone to think from the title of my talk that I believe the only children’s books that matter are books on tough subjects like war.” She feels that all books for children are “books that matter,” and would not want to offend authors who write light-hearted works.

“Books about soup!” whispered Loris Lesynski, who was sitting next to this recorder.

Sheila’s talk was based on a piece she wrote for Freedom to Read week, and she hoped that we were all familiar with this event, which takes place in February. Freedom to Read celebrates and promotes the right of every child to read without impediment. Sheila was asked to write this piece because Groundwood is known for publishing books on difficult subjects. Just some of the subjects Groundwood has tackled are: pornography, genocide, prostitutes as lead characters, first nations children taken from their homes, and children hurt by war.

“Part of Groundwood’s canon are books that some might consider inappropriate for children.”

Sheila held up the book, The Composition, as an example of a classic Groundwood title. The book, by Antonio Skarmeta , is about a child under a repressive South American regime. “This sounds like the worst topic in the world for a children’s book,” she said, “but it is a beautiful book.” Sometimes books like this can be a tough sell to parents, but Groundwood relies on and is very grateful to libraries, often the place where a child would find a book like The Composition.

“When publishing books for YA, you can talk about anything,” Sheila said, “but picture books are a different story. I always ask myself, ‘Would I read this to a child I know?’”

Sheila then showed us the book, Good Night, Commander by Iranian author Ahmad Akbarpour. The book is about the aftermath of Iran-Iraq war and is the story about a child who has lost both his leg and his mother to the conflict. This is a touching book, which Sheila says she would read with a child. It’s power lies in its absolute fidelity to the things a child notices and the things a child thinks. She believes that some books should be read and discussed with an adult and hopes that they are. “There are expectations around context which we at Groundwood can’t control,” she said.

Goodnight Commander was not a best seller, Sheila told us, but a book she was very proud to have it on Groundwood’s list.

Sheila then went on to talk about submitting to Groundwood, telling us that the worst part of her job was saying no so often. They receive 1,500 submissions a year and publish 30. This means that for every yes, there are 49 nos. A phrase rejected authors and illustrators hear again and again is: “This project is not right for our list.” This is not a brush off. Most Canadian publishers have a notion of what their list is when taken as a whole. Look at their catalogues to get a sense of this. Groundwood does not consider genre fiction like fantasy or mysteries, even though Sheila is a big mystery fan. It’s just not what Groundwood does.

When Sheila considers a submission, the first things she wants, before anything else, is an artistic creation. (We could talk for hours about what that means, she added.) She asks herself, is this literature? Groundwood is known for a standard of excellence in writing and illustration, which she considers before asking herself what message the book is sending. Will this book deliver a rich reading experience?

Sheila had a lot to say about the issue of messages in children’s books. Every book on a difficult subject is a book with a message. In fact, any book is a book with a message. What Sheila does not want is a book that gives and easy solution to a complex problem. She gave the example of a hypothetical book on bullying:

A little girl is bullied. She, possibly with the help of a kind adult, comes up with a strategy. She implements this strategy and, suddenly, she has friends. In the end, she and her new friends ride their bikes to the ice cream store.

Sheila is not arguing that a bullied child shouldn’t have a strategy, but it does readers a terrible disservice when the problem is solved so easily. The book she wants is more inconclusive. Don’t wrap it all up.

Of course, no child should feel more alone and more miserable than they did when they opened the book, but that doesn’t mean all problems must be solved. A child character must have arrived somewhere but not necessarily to a solution. The boy in Good Night, Commander learns that war is made up of victims like himself, but he does not draw conclusions about war that are beyond him. He makes a small step. When reading a story about siblings, no one thinks it’s the writer’s job to solve the “problem of siblings.” It’s the same with war or bullying or pain.

Sarah Ellis’s new book, Ouside In, published this spring, is a good example of what Sheila is looking for. It’s book primarily about friendship, but one of the girls is effectively homeless. She has been abducted by a man who found her. To an adult this sounds terrible, but in the context of the book she is a heroic figure to the other girl who becomes her friend. What Sheila loved about the book is that it never delivers a moral judgement. The book’s goal is to tell a story about two girls who become friends. The message is given very subtly. “I am finding myself wanting that subtly more and more,” Sheila said. “I have less need for resolution.”

Sheila then threw a question to the audience: “If we are passionate about the world we live in, what about telling stories that aren’t ours to tell…or are all stories ours to tell?”

This is the question of appropriation of voice, which Sheila said she didn’t have an answer for. As writers, can we write about different races, different cultures? She thinks that our writing would be very narrow if we could not, but she thinks its an important question that she urges us not to gloss over. It is a question worth grappling with again and again.

Sheila ended the talk by giving us a few of her “pet peeves.”

Pet Peeve #1

Why does all historical fiction have to be about rebellious girls who don’t seem to fit in their own time period? Too many historical novels are anachronistic in that characters do not have the mind of their times. By doing this, authors are creating someone “born better.” Isn’t it more interesting to write about someone completely immersed in their own time period, who has the attitudes of the day?

Pet Peeve #2

In too many novels there is a boy who sticks with the girl through thick and thin. Sheila does not want to be anti-boy, but in some novels, this character’s faithfulness is his only quality. He’s hard to believe in, this perfect boy. Sheila doesn’t think this is the best hope to be giving young girls. There is a desire to end a book--especially a book where a girl has had a bad time--with the promise that a guy will be there in the end. Sometimes this works and is appropriate, but authors need to ask themselves the tough question: Are you telling lies to children?

Pet Peeve #3

The first person in picture books is tricky. If it works it can be brilliant, but often an author attributes too much to the voice of the child. The wonderful thing about Good Night Commander is that even at the end, the boy protagonist is thinking “sort of the wrong thing” about his situation. He’s only part way. And everything he says is from this realistic point of view. Writers, ask yourself: Are you using the child protagonist to communicate things to the reader that no child could communicate? If so, you have a problem.

Thanks so much for joining us on a rainy Wednesday, Sheila!

A note from your recorder: That's right! What were once called "CANSCAIP Minutes," write-ups of our Toronto meetings, will now appear on our blog. In upcoming months, we'd like to make our blog more vibrant, so if you have any ideas for posts, contact me at lena (at) lenacoakley (dot) com

Big changes are afoot on the CANSCAIP blog! In the next few months, we’ll be bringing you more content than ever before, so keep checking back or grab an RSS feed, above. We’ll start by having write-ups of our monthly Toronto meetings and featured interviews with the speakers of our upcoming Packaging Your Imagination conference. If you have further ideas for what you’d like to see here, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.

And now, without further ado, here is the first in our series of short features about our PYI speakers:

Introducing…Paula Wing

Lena Coakley: Hi Paula! Thanks for answering a few questions for us. The topic of your CANSCAIP presentation is: Standing On Your Head: Adapting Your Work for the Stage. Can you give us a little taste of what you'll be talking about? What's one tip or nugget of wisdom you'll be sharing with PYI attendees?

Paula Wing: I'll be talking about and sharing exercises that have helped me to adapt books to the stage. There is a saying in Italian about translation that I think applies in some ways to adaptation: Traduttore, tradittore. Meaning, translator, betrayer.

You have to be faithful to the original, but you have to be faithful to the spirit of the original rather than the letter of it. You will have to abandon certain things. You will have to invent small things. In order to be true to what the original is about.

Lena: Translator, betrayer. I love that.

You have been writing and adapting plays for many years now, with all the ups and downs that entails. How do you stay motivated?

Paula: Staying motivated is one of the challenges of the writing life. For me, one of the best ways is to mix it up. I change the location of my writing sometimes - meaning I go to a café or I even go to a different room in my apartment, or write in bed when I wake up. On rare occasions when I have a big deadline I sometimes go off for a "dirty weekend", to a cottage or don't tell motel where I hole up and write pausing only to eat ripple chips.

I recently took an online writing course to kick start me after a sluggish period. I meet with other writers in coffee shops for writing dates. I am fuelled by the brilliance and success of others (though I admit I can struggle with feelings of envy and jealousy there too. But when I can use others' success as a motivator, it works very well).

Lena: Thanks so much, Paula. See you at PYI!

Paula Wing is a playwright,translator and teacher. Her most recent play was an adaptation of Robin Hood for Geordie Theatre in Montréal. Her original play Risky Phil is indevelopment at Young People's Theatre in Toronto.

Do you use Goodreads to find books or to promote your own? Have you heard of it but aren't sure what it is? This month's Sask CANSCAIP chapter's discussion forum is on "Why Goodreads?" Come and add your two cents or ask your questions at http://skcanscaip.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/why-goodreads/ .